The secret reason oil prices didn't spiral after the Iran war

When the Iran war threatened a global economic collapse, China shockingly slashed its crude oil imports by 40% from February to June. This brutal pullback acted as a massive shock absorber, stabilizing oil prices when everyone expected chaos. Watch the full breakdown of this high-stakes economic gamble.

Fuel rations and cash handouts: Iran war energy shock hits Asia

 Across south-east Asia, governments are scrambling to find ways to conserve energy and shield the public from soaring costs, as war in the Middle East causes huge disruption in the global oil market. In Thailand, news anchors are ditching their jackets after orders to reduce air conditioning use, while government workers in the Philippines are operating on a four-day week. Asia relies heavily on imported energy, much of which passes through the strait of Hormuz, and officials have warned further measures could be considered if the energy crisis worsens

What's the biggest risk for instability in Venezuela now?

Venezuela's military has recognized Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, as the country's acting leader. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the armed forces have been activated nationwide to defend Venezuela's sovereignty. Padrino added that many of Maduro's security team were killed when U.S. special forces extracted the deposed leader from the capital, Caracas.

Drilling divides an oil-rich continent

It’s one of the most oil-rich regions in the world. Now South America is at a crossroads: Should it seek out new drilling opportunities -- or prepare for a post-carbon economy, potentially at the expense of its own prosperity?

 

China's Xi Jinping arrives in Saudi Arabia for energy-focused visit

 Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday (December 7) to attend meetings with regional leaders. The visit is likely to focus on energy ties

Why the Suez Canal is so Insanely Important.. (and Nukes)

 

Venezuela - the bitter legacy of Hugo Chávez

 

People around the globe are witnessing the disintegration of an oil-rich country. Venezuela had the world’s fourth-highest per-capita income in 1950. Now it’s being ripped apart by record levels of poverty. More than 90% of Venezuelans struggle to subsist.

Oil promises – how oil changed a country

 

When oil was discovered in Ghana in 2007, the country began to dream big. It dreamed that the ‘black gold’ would bring economic upswing and long-awaited prosperity to its nation. But what happens when dreams and globalization meet?

Why Russian mercenaries seized control of key oilfield in Libya

Despite losing ground, Moscow sends war planes and Russian mercenaries to Libya. Plus, Lebanon's deadly explosion.

Russian mercenary groups have enabled renegade military commander Khalifa Hafter, who is based in eastern Libya, to blockade the country's oil exports, starving the country of much-needed money.

Moscow's backing of Haftar, a former CIA asset, has increased tensions with the United States. Russian private military contractors are active in 16 African nations. How is the country paying for its overseas wars?

Oil and ruin — exodus from Venezuela

Venezuela is in the grips of what is now the world’s second largest refugee crisis after Syria. But unlike Syria, Venezuela is not mired in civil war, and the country is sitting on the world’s largest proven oil reserves. How could such a rich nation be driven into ruin? Where has the country’s wealth gone, and why are its people starving? Corruption and mismanagement are driving displacement worldwide. The majority of the world’s refugees and migrants are fleeing from countries in the top 10 of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index - places like Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia.

Frontline Putin's Revenge part 1& 2 2017

What are the risks of not capping oil production?

Oil producers meet in Qatar’s capital to discuss a possible production freeze.

It's in almost everything we use, from the screen you're watching this on to the toothbrush you used this morning.

While consumers benefit through lower petrol prices and energy costs - leading oil-producing nations are suffering from the dramatic fall in the price of oil.

Ministers have been meeting in Doha to discuss a possible production freeze.

They hope lower output will cause prices to rise and revive government budgets which rely on oil revenue.

Ministers met against the backdrop of rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, who don't see eye to eye on much, including oil production levels.

Crude reality: Winners and losers in the oil crisis

We explore the demise of oil, from production companies in the North Sea to a former Caspian tiger fallen on hard times.



As the oil price has dropped more than 70 percent since the summer of 2014, the oil industry is facing its deepest downturn in more than two decades.

The price of oil has decoupled from the actual cost of production; it is becoming unprofitable and the effects are being felt across the globe.

Nigeria and Angola, Africa's two biggest oil producers, are both in talks with the World Bank about support for their strained state finances.

Budgets in Russia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Canada are in deficit, which means cuts in public spending.

The Secret of the Seven Sisters: Desert Storms

A four-part series that reveals how a secret pact formed a cartel that controls the world's oil.


On August 28, 1928, in the Scottish highlands, began the secret story of oil.

Three men had an appointment at Achnacarry Castle - a Dutchman, an American and an Englishman.

The Dutchman was Henry Deterding, a man nicknamed the Napoleon of Oil, having exploited a find in Sumatra. He joined forces with a rich ship owner and painted Shell salesman and together the two men founded Royal Dutch Shell.

The American was Walter C. Teagle and he represents the Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller at the age of 31 - the future Exxon. Oil wells, transport, refining and distribution of oil - everything is controlled by Standard oil.

The Englishman, Sir John Cadman, was the director of the Anglo-Persian oil Company, soon to become BP. On the initiative of a young Winston Churchill, the British government had taken a stake in BP and the Royal Navy switched its fuel from coal to oil. With fuel-hungry ships, planes and tanks, oil became "the blood of every battle".

Earthquake State

Fault Lines travels to Oklahoma to find out what, or who, is to blame for the state's daily earthquakes.



Earthquakes have become a daily occurrence in Oklahoma, which has replaced California as the most seismically active part of the United States.

For Oklahomans, long hardened to such natural disasters as tornadoes, earthquakes are a new and startling development.

Scientific evidence that Oklahoma's earthquakes are man-made, however, has been met by a climate of denial by politicians and industrialists.

The underground disposal of waste water from oil and gas drilling has been cited as the chief culprit for the dramatic increase in state seismic activity, yet the wells remain largely unregulated.

The Arctic drilling controversy

Shell oil company under fire over its controversial exploration plans in the area.



Hundreds of protesters blocked for many hours entrance to a sea port terminal in Seattle where Shell loaded up a drilling rig.

The rig is due to head to the waters off Alaska this summer after the company received the green light to drill in the Arctic Ocean. Protesters, however, warn of a potential environmental catastrophe.
The region is thought to contain 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas reserves and around 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil.

In Bahrain citizen journalists are under arrest

On August 14, protesters have promised to take to the streets once more to demand democratic reform in the latest installment of a two-year long protest movement. The response of the government of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to the protest wave has been repression, and the government has made it almost impossible for foreign reporters to cover the turmoil.

Following the protests that erupted in Bahrain as part of the Arab Spring the Bahraini government tried and convicted a group of doctors and nurses for providing treatment to protesters injured in clashes with government security forces.

 Twenty doctors and nurses jailed during the spring revolt against Bahrain's ruling monarchy received sentences of up to 15 years in prison Thursday.The government of the Persian Gulf kingdom leveled a range of charges against the medical workers, including possession of weapons and taking part in efforts to overthrow the regime. Human rights groups are calling the verdicts "bogus" and say the doctors are being falsely targeted for doing their jobs and treating wounded protesters.

Given the government's willingness to jail doctors and nurses for simply treating the injured imprisoning citizen journalists is just the next logical step in keeping the population uninformed and repressed.

 With August 14 quickly approaching, citizen journalists are the government's new targets. A week ago, I spoke online with a citizen journalist inside Bahrain who told me his arrest might be imminent because he feared a crackdown had begun against him and his colleagues. He had good reason to worry. At 3 am on July 31, fifteen masked men woke up Bahraini blogger Mohammed Hassan in his house and arrested him.His computer, camera, phone and every other electronic item found in his room were also confiscated. The young blogger's family was only told that he was "wanted." On Friday, after his lawyer AbdulAziz Mosa tweeted about evidence that Hassan had been beaten in detention, Mr. Mosa was arrested. 

The U.S. the government in its usual role of complete hypocrisy on the one hand "condemning the violence" while on the other fully supporting the governments doing the repression.

  "Under the frame and discourse of terrorism, the Bahraini regime is attempting to prevent protests from taking place," Maryam AlKhawaja, the Acting President of BCHR, told me over the phone from Copenhagen in Denmark. She accused the government of going after citizen journalists and activists to make coverage of the protests impossible. She tried to fly into Bahrain this Friday, but was turned away at the airport in Copenhagen, told by her airline that she was on a list of people banned from entering Bahrain.

Bahrain is a perfect case study of this double standard the U.S. has barely mentioned the abuses meted out by the government on its citizens for simply exercising their rights because of the U.S. Fifth fleet which is stationed in Bahrain